The personal blog of Peter Lee a.k.a. "China Hand"... Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel, and an open book to those who read. You are welcome to contact China Matters at the address chinamatters --a-- prlee.org or follow me on twitter @chinahand.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Karl Rove Takes On Tattoos and Body Piercings But Not His Stepfather

"I have a young friend in Austin. She's 34 years
old. I know her professionally," Rove said. "She and her boyfriend
had to go sign up under the Affordable Care Act for insurance. Her premiums
went from just over $100 a month to nearly $400 a month. And her deductible
went up 50 percent from $2,000 to $3,000. Now, she's got tattoos and
some body piercings. You know, not exactly look like a normal Republican voter.
My sense is she is not going to be particularly keen about voting Democrat this
year (sic)."

Interesting that Karl Rove would go there.Karl Rove’s adoptive stepfather, Louis Rove,
came out as gay and left the family.The
elder Rove was also reportedly a wonderful guy and a true American original, a pioneer in the body
modification/piercing movement, with dozens of piercings, mostly on his genitals,
as Xeni Jardin reported on Boing Boing back in 2007.Louis Rove’s nickname was Indy—apparently stemming
from his childhood fascination with the Indigo Man, a tattooed circus
attraction—but he limited himself to piercing as a reversible form of body
modification with which he felt more comfortable.

Although I never saw any concerted pushback on the story, it
never got a lot of traction, either—though one might think that it might emerge
in discussions of conservative movement übermeister Karl Rove’s psychology and political
machinations as a counterexample of what the “real America” looks like.

I really don’t know what to make of Karl Rove’s seemingly
casual invocation of BM Americans and his observation that the pierced and
tattooed young person does not look like “a normal Republican voter” (though
Rove might have been better advised to use “typical” as opposed to “normal”).

Anyway, it’s just…interesting. And probably has more to do with Rove's efforts to talk up the cost of Obamacare to the Invincibles (especially those who have to transition out of crappy existing plans) whom he hopes to lure into the Republican fold, or at least discourage from voting Democratic in the upcoming election cycle than it does with coming to terms with the memory of his stepfather.